Sir Paul wrote Yesterday on his own
Sir Paul McCartney has extended the reversal of song-writing credits on Beatles hits, putting his name before that of the late John Lennon.
The singer engaged in a war of wards last year with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono after he switched the credit from the traditional Lennon-McCartney to have his name first on an album.

Sir Paul has now reversed the famous Lennon-McCartney credit again for an album to be released shortly.

He has justified the reversal by saying that Lennon had little or no input into a number of Beatles hits.

The latest album will feature Sir Paul's solo work as well as Beatles classics which had traditionally had the Lennon-McCartney tag.

Sir Paul had been unhappy for some time that he was not recognised for the work he put into writing the songs.

One of the Beatles' biggest hits, Yesterday, was solely written by Sir Paul but still had the Lennon-McCartney credit.

Billing

He had wanted to swap the names on the hugely popular Beatles Anthology album but this was vetoed by Ono.

So when it came to releasing his Back in the US album last year he took the decision to make the change, which he is now continuing with.

Sir Paul said the original decision to credit Lennon first had been taken by Lennon and the Beatles' late manager Brian Epstein.

"I arrived at the meeting to find that Brian and John had already independently decided the billing would be 'songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney'," he said.

"I said, 'What about McCartney/Lennon?' They said, 'We'll do this for now and we can change it around to be fair at any point in the future'.

"Having been reassured by this I let the matter go and our songs became known as Lennon/McCartney songs, a fact I was perfectly happy about."

I feel that Paul can do anything he wants on new solo albums, but when it is a Beatle album (Anthology, New Re-masters, New Let it Be) it should stay L/M, because he isn't allowed to mess with history.

Yeah, but it doesn't tell the complete truth. It was NOT just Ono who vetoed the credits on Anthology, Ringo Starr and George Harrison did as well. Here it is:

McCartney's contract with Capitol gives him control over the wording of the credits on his solo albums. In fact, five Beatles songs on his 1976 Wings Over America live album are credited to McCartney/Lennon. But for releases on the Beatle's Apple label, the surviving band members or their estates would have to unanimously approve any change to the credits.
This is precisely why the battle over who wrote what heated up in 1996, when the CD booklet for the Anthology 3 album was being written. McCartney's lawyer and brother-in-law, John Eastman, demanded that eighteen songs -- including "Blackbird," "Get Back" and "Hey Jude" -- be credited solely to McCartney, with Lennon's name omitted entirely. But George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Ono unanimously refused McCartney's bid, and Eastman later wrote a letter apologizing for his "zeal" and claiming he had acted "without Paul McCartney's instructions."
Writer David Sheff, who conducted a 1980 Q&A with Lennon for Playboy magazine, says the battle over authorship amounts to more than a spat between McCartney and Yoko. "Paul is rewriting history," says Sheff, who spoke with Lennon at length about how each Beatles song was written, including "Eleanor Rigby." Says Sheff, "There's something about 'Lennon/McCartney' that means more than just whose name comes first. For Beatles fans, this switch dishonors something that is cherished by so many people."
In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, McCartney revealed that the real sore spot may have been a decades-old bruise to his ego. "The minute John died, there started to be a revisionism," he said. "There were strange quotes, like, 'John was the only one in the Beatles.' Or 'Paul booked the studio.' Like John was the real genius, and I was just the guy who sang 'Yesterday.'

I think at this point with his solo albums in the case that it is a song he wrote on his own as in the case of Yesterday there is no reason he shouldn't be able to have the recognition that, that song was more his then it was John's....I'd be frustrated with it if I was him too

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">There are new people that join these links all the time, maybe they would like to express an opinion on what may have been seen around here a few times by those older memebers... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

i know this article and topic is old. but, i found this written by bill harry on his mersey beat website. this from someone who was there 1st hand:

"The Beatles first British chart-topper 'Please Please Me' has the song writing credit 'McCartney/Lennon.' Since, from the very beginning, the two wrote a number of songs on their own, it was initially agreed that the name of the main contributor to the song would go first - McCartney-Lennon or Lennon'McCartney. Their agreement was changed by Brian Epstein, who considered it too complicated. He insisted that the person whose name went first should conform to the position in the alphabet - and as L comes before M, it should be Lennon-McCartney. Although this was basically contrary to the arrangement John and Paul wanted, they had no option but to agree, although this was to cause problems decades later concerning the songs which Paul actually wrote without any contribution from John or other members of the Beatles, such as 'Yesterday.'

The two agreed that all income generated by any of the songs under the Lennon &amp; McCartney banner would be shared equally between them. Generally, John's songs were lyric led while Paul's were noted for melody, although John was to disagree with this generally held opinion later on."

"The song writing partnership came to an end in September 1969. John had written the number 'Cold Turkey', which he wanted the Beatles to record. Paul refused, so John recorded with Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr. John decided to break the agreement he had with Paul that any song they wrote would be credited to Lennon &amp; McCartney and he credited it solely to John Lennon."

I guess I understand where paul is coming from, but paulie, is it really worth it? everyone knows you wrote yesterday...John is gone and paul still has this competition goning on in his head, but now its more like vs. yoko...i guess he does what he wants, i mean, he is paul mccartney and all....

[ QUOTE ]I am the Paulrus Posted:
i know this article and topic is old. but, i found this written by bill harry on his mersey beat website. this from someone who was there 1st hand:

"The Beatles first British chart-topper 'Please Please Me' has the song writing credit 'McCartney/Lennon.' Since, from the very beginning, the two wrote a number of songs on their own, it was initially agreed that the name of the main contributor to the song would go first - McCartney-Lennon or Lennon'McCartney. Their agreement was changed by Brian Epstein, who considered it too complicated. He insisted that the person whose name went first should conform to the position in the alphabet - and as L comes before M, it should be Lennon-McCartney. Although this was basically contrary to the arrangement John and Paul wanted, they had no option but to agree, although this was to cause problems decades later concerning the songs which Paul actually wrote without any contribution from John or other members of the Beatles, such as 'Yesterday.'

The two agreed that all income generated by any of the songs under the Lennon &amp; McCartney banner would be shared equally between them. Generally, John's songs were lyric led while Paul's were noted for melody, although John was to disagree with this generally held opinion later on."

"The song writing partnership came to an end in September 1969. John had written the number 'Cold Turkey', which he wanted the Beatles to record. Paul refused, so John recorded with Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr. John decided to break the agreement he had with Paul that any song they wrote would be credited to Lennon &amp; McCartney and he credited it solely to John Lennon."

[/ QUOTE ]

This may be old news but probably not very well known and I think bears repeating over and over again. Not to mention very interesting. Thanks for posting Paul.

[ QUOTE ]sourmilkpinky Posted:
[ QUOTE ]I am the Paulrus Posted:
i know this article and topic is old. but, i found this written by bill harry on his mersey beat website. this from someone who was there 1st hand:

"The Beatles first British chart-topper 'Please Please Me' has the song writing credit 'McCartney/Lennon.' Since, from the very beginning, the two wrote a number of songs on their own, it was initially agreed that the name of the main contributor to the song would go first - McCartney-Lennon or Lennon'McCartney. Their agreement was changed by Brian Epstein, who considered it too complicated. He insisted that the person whose name went first should conform to the position in the alphabet - and as L comes before M, it should be Lennon-McCartney. Although this was basically contrary to the arrangement John and Paul wanted, they had no option but to agree, although this was to cause problems decades later concerning the songs which Paul actually wrote without any contribution from John or other members of the Beatles, such as 'Yesterday.'

The two agreed that all income generated by any of the songs under the Lennon &amp; McCartney banner would be shared equally between them. Generally, John's songs were lyric led while Paul's were noted for melody, although John was to disagree with this generally held opinion later on."

"The song writing partnership came to an end in September 1969. John had written the number 'Cold Turkey', which he wanted the Beatles to record. Paul refused, so John recorded with Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr. John decided to break the agreement he had with Paul that any song they wrote would be credited to Lennon &amp; McCartney and he credited it solely to John Lennon."

[/ QUOTE ]

This may be old news but probably not very well known and I think bears repeating over and over again. Not to mention very interesting. Thanks for posting Paul.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think so too Pinky, any Beatley news is interesting &amp; worth discussion, also good to keep the newer fans up to date...